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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Over 10,000 Hits!!!!

Over 10,000 hits in less than six months? At least I think it's less than six months. My coffee has not kicked in yet this morning, but there it is, staring me in the face: 10,027. YOU PEOPLE ROCK!!!!

I love you all. You know that, don't you?

So here is another craft room purge give-away I know you will swoon over, and when you come back to consciousness, you will sit there scratching your heads wondering why the HECK I'm giving these yummy goodies away in a purge. Well, two reasons. First, I love you. Second, I am Big-Flower Challenged.

Every card I make with these Prima lovelies leaves me feeling disappointed. I tried so hard to make them work for me. Ann makes them work on her cards all the time. I tried copying her stuff. No joy. I studied photos in magazines, cards on SCS, cards on other blogs. I just can't do it anymore. Sometimes, we must retreat in creative defeat.

I feel really good about this. You should, too.

But WAIT! That's not all!

The winner will also receive a $25 gift certificate from Papertrey Ink. Woohooo! For those of you living outside the US of A, that might cover shipping on your order, thus removing the single biggest barrier you have to PTI's goodness and beauty.

All you have to do is tell me what you love about clean-and-simple design in the comments for this post before midnight, EDST, Saturday, August 8. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog sometime next week.

Congrats on your milestone! Thanks for sharing your blog goodies with us! I love Clean and Simple, because they are usually visually pleasing. Your eye goes to the sentiment or image, which is really the message you want to give with the card. Sometimes they can be quick and easy to mass produce too... I say sometimes because I've had CAS cards take forever before, just trying to get the right look!

I love the uncluttered, fresh look of clean and simple. To do it well you need to know something about location and balance - and you do. Your cards are always lovely. It's not as easy to do as it looks and it can be difficult for me to accomplish. Thanks for the inspiration. Congrats on 10,000 - Wow!

I like clean and simple designs because to me they look complete and natural. It's the style I gravitate towards myself, so that plays a role in how I perceive it. When there is a ton of stuff on a card/LO, sometimes it seems like you could just keep adding things on for the sake of having more embellishments, like there is no end in sight. When you keep it all very simple and focused however, to me there is a clearer end-point to the design.

Too bad you don't think the flowers work for you- they are certainly pretty!

Congratulations on the hits! I always look forward to seeing your creations. I loved looking at the multi-layer, well-embellished cards, but could never pull it off. So much stress, trying to pick the perfect patterned papers to combine! And mailing them -- forget it! I'm so glad I discovered you and CAS. Still working on perfecting it, because it's not as easy as I thought, but I love the results. Thanks for the inspiration.

Congrats on the hits. It is because you are a master at what you do that we all come here to see your art.I love the challenge of CAS, but also the high impact that CAS design can give if you get it right.

Congrats on all the hits! Ohhhh, to get my hands on those yummy flowers... ;)

What do I love about CAS cards? I love the challenge of adding just one or two touches and still achieving that *wow* factor. I love that they can be easily mass produced. I love that they can be mailed without extra postage. Need I go on?

What's not to love about CAS? Like Ann said I like the WOW factor you can achieve with Less is More! I am so happy that you stood up and started the CAS revolution!Congrats on the 10K hits!! You are the CAS queen! Seriously - I look up to you and your creations! Hugs, Harriet

Congratulations Susan! I love all CAS cards, but yours are some of my favorites! I love the simple beauty; not a lot of patterns and images, and so crisp and clean. I also love that you share your thoughts on your cards...what you like and don't like about them. Thank you!

Congrats on all those hits. I am not surprised though. Your creations are stunning! They are 'clean and simple' but beautiful. I always have to keep adding things and mine never turn out to be 'clean and simple'. You are truly the Queen of 'CAS'! :0)

I love the CAS style because it is beautiful and balanced. Although I think the term is misleading: it may be clean, but most of the time it is not simple. Your creations are stunning. Congratulations on your hit count!

Hey Susan! Congrats on your hits! Your CAS cards are always lovely and balanced, so it comes as no surprise. I love CAS because they are less work and faster to make. I love the layered and embellie look, but when I have 600 things to do before noon, CAS hits the spot!! Hugs,

I guess the simple part of CAS is what I like. When a card ends up being simple, and still mind-blowingly beautiful, I love that look. While I still like looking at cards that have 20 layers and matching embellies, I don't enjoy making them that way. I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be so drawn to the CAS style, but I just love seeing it. I think the art really stands out that way.

Congrats!! Finding out that you had a blog, and not just having to wait for SCS postings, was the highlight of my summer! I love CAS because they look deceivingly simple - but take so much time and talent to really pull them off. The ultimate challenge! Congrats!-Amy Kilbreath

Wow!! Congradulation on your blog success! You deserve it!!! I love the simple elegance of your cards. I also think card making has gotten so layered and so much business and truly your cards are so inspiring because of the simple design is eyecatching and inspiring. You card design really shows of beautiful stamps you use. Thank you for inspiring me to just enjoy simple card making!

Congratulations on your success - I love your blog, too! What I like about the clean and simple designs are that they look elegant and uncluttered but are still able to be personalized to the receiver's taste. They also don't (usually) take as long to make.

Congratulations on reaching 10,000hits! I really enjoy your blog andappreciate your cards. I love Cleanand Simple for several reasons: itgives a peaceful uncluttered card (anantidote to this crazy world) and Ithink CAS is the most pleasing to the eye.

I will try not to go on and on, but I stumbled on your blog not that long ago. I love to copy ideas, but when I make cards I always make 20 of the same design. I belong to a monthly card club and need some for that. The rest I usually give away to my friends to use. Anyway, some peoples cards, although they are brilliant, trying to recreate 20 of them took hours and was giving me carpal tunnel!! Your cards, even though are simple, they are PERFECT! The color combos, I love your constant use of a white card and lack of layers. They are anything but boring. LOVE THEM! Thanks for the inspiration!

What is there not to love about clean and simple???? I love how sometimes so little can make such a big impact. I have really really enjoyed your blog - you are great at CAS! Definitely an inspiration!

Hi Susan!Quite a milestone, to be sure. Congratulations! I'm suprised there aren't more hits than that.What I like most about clean and simple design is the simple part. You can get your message across without a lot of other distractions. Clean, simple and to the point. What else could you want from a card?

Congrats Susan -- I am not surprised you've received so many hits -- your cards ROCK! Seeing your beautiful work has definitely influenced me to a more CAS style. I like that style because it looks peaceful to me. There is so much noise in the world today -- visual & audio -- that CAS style is like a little breath of fresh air.

Congratulations! I love your cards and check your blog everyday. CAS cards are my favorite because to me they are the most eye-pleasing, not to mention practical for mailing. Please keep the inspiration coming.

I love clean and simple design because it is elegant and striking, serene and unfussy. It is CLEAN! I don't like things too busy or layered or cluttered. And YOUR clean and simple designs are everything that is good. You are so inspiring! I have checked your blog every couple of days since I discovered it a few months ago. And in addition to making beautiful cards, you also write beautifully.

Cingrats on all the hits!! I love the CAS look because it is so elegant and uncluttered. It matches my style well. I love that you post all your amazing ideas to share with all of us. You are extremely gifted! Thanks so much,

Okay, I'm no big fan of flowers either...but throw a PTI GC in there and I'm game for the draw!!! What I love about CAS design is that when you get it right...t is always a WOW card!! :D Crossing my fingers!!

Congrats Susan....I'm not surprised as I love reading your blog and seeing your cards. What I love about CAS cards is that they look so crisp and clean and really make a statement. Thanks for a chance to win. I don't order from PTI just for that reason!!!

Congratulations, Susan! Your blog is simply wonderful, and I've been following you on SCS for a while...you're the Queen of CAS! I would LOVE a gift from PTI...so easy to use their sets in CAS. Thanks for sharing your beauties with us!

Wow, Susan, that's so generous of you!! Congrats on reaching the 10K mark!Hmm, I enjoy making CAS cards b/c they're very calming in their simplicity, as well as allowing the creator to focus on a specific image or sentiment without distraction.Thanks for sharing your style with all of us!!

Congrats on your blog success! I love your blog because you take clean and simple ideas and make them fabulous! The simple designs go such a long way - what is the saying? Less is more..? Great job! Look forward to your creations everyday.

Wow, that's great! The thing I like most about the CAS designs, I think is the common use of white. I do like brighter colors, especially oranges, yellows and pinks, but too much is just too much when working with those colors. The white space is perfect for those brighter colors, giving the right contrast without making you reach for sunglasses.

First I want to thank you for the beautiful flower-candy and the amazing gift certificate from PTI. I love the stamps, buttons, etc. from PTI and I love the clean and simple style. They both go very well together.I like to focus one image on cards in the clean and simple way, because it just looks fabulous and most of the time those cards are done quick.

I like that the clean and simple is being brought forward as another "type" of card. When I look at the elegance of clean and simple cards, I am happy! It seems to be an art to put few elements together to make a CAS card. I enjoy your blog and all of the great CAS cards!

10K hits .... congrats to you but it is such a great blog I'm not the least bit surprised. Well done you.Wonderful blog candy, you are quite right about the shipping it makes PTI a bit of a no no so to be able to buy and not feel guilty ... whoooohoo!!!Why do I like clean & simple, well I like to be able to see lots of space round images so that there is less disraction to the eye. I love your style (as I keep saying !!) long may you continue.Thanks for your generosity.PS I think you are too hard on yourself re flowers think of them as punched out shapes!!!!

Congrats on all the hits. I love your blog and youur cards. I am not sure why, but any time I am looking at a gallery, I am always drawn to the CAS cards. I have always used a lot of layers and embellishments, but lately, have been using less. I think I just like the look of the plain white background on cards more and more. Usually, less is more.Thank you for the chance to win some goodies. Theresa in Kitimat

Hello Susan, I've just found your blog a few weeks ago and am hooked! Although my own attempts at CAS cards have been less than sterling, what I really like about yours is that they all have a wow factor. Whether it's the sparing use of colour, or the impact of a few well chosen words, your message is powerful because it is not cluttered up. Thanks for the inspiration!

CAS is like the little black dress. Or the single strand of matched pearls. Always appropriate, always appreciated. That's the short answer for why I love CAS. The long answer is: whenever I'm having a particularly bad day at work, I take just a wee moment - less then five minutes, and look at your gallery. I can't tell you why, or even if it's normal (probably not), but the small, individual "hits" of calm, calm me.

I keep coming back to your blog because CAS is my preference. I bought white card stock to use for most of my cards because of you. I started out with leftover paper from scrapbooking and punches. I loved being inspired from your creations to try a new twist on a simple idea.

I was never really a CAS woman but my Mum kept asking me to make "simpler" cards that didn't have to be sent using a bubble envelope. I kept starting out with that in mind but the cards always grew way beyond "simple". So I started looking for blogs that might help. And found you! I suddenly realized how really gorgeous CAS could be. Now I never go a day without making sure to check your blog.

Thanks too for acknowledging the barrier that shipping can make for Canadians. It can be disheartening when you really want to try a company's products but can't afford and/or justify the added cost of the really high shipping some companies require.

I certainly am not surprised that you have hit the 10,000 mark already. Your CAS cards are just fabulous and we can't get enough of them! You have a way of making cards that are both CAS and absolutely stunning.

What I love most about CAS is how you can capture the beauty of a stamp without going overboard.

I am constantly finding inspiration when I visit your blog. Now if only I had enough time in the day to case your cards I would be a happy woman. ;)

Congratulations and thanks for a chance to win the goodies. I am always checking in on your "other" blog,,,clean and simple....just love and am always uuuhhhing and aahhhhhing over there and just today I find out you have this one too!!! WELL,,,am I excited or WHAT and you are giving away goodies to boot,,,,I just adore your clean and simple designs...so clean ,,,so fresh,,,so inspiring.There is never any "scnick-schnack" to interfere with the design,,,almost Zen-like a lot of times. Some of the best inspiration on the web. Thanks so much!

Hi There!I know I'm too late for the contest, but, I still want to comment on your CAS blog!I only found you last week and I absolutely LOVE your style!It's just so clean and uncluttered to the eye! Very ummmm 'relaxing'??? Thank you for sharing your talent and your eye for the beauty in your cards!SherryBee in AZhttp://www.youravon.com/sherrybeeson